The first of Soft Skull Publishers‘ new iPamphlet range – free, downloadable essays – “Bush and Putin as Leaders” examines how Bush and Putin both look into each others’ souls and see kindred spirits, and kindred operators…

The actions of the Bush Administration point to a great irony. Fifteen years after the end of the Cold War, America and Russia are undergoing a form of convergence of sorts. However, rather than Russia adopting liberal democracy and a market economy, as so many had predicted, the United States may be moving closer to a more traditionally Russian notion of managed democracy, in which executive authority reigns and the rights of citizens take a back seat to the needs of the state…

Each had his “Top Gun” moment before an adoring national press. Bush “helped” fly an S-3B Viking to the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003 to make a speech declaring the “end” to major military combat in Iraq. Three years earlier, and less than a month before his first presidential election, then acting President Putin co-piloted an Su-27 from Krasnodar to Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. The media images of the two presidents, resplendent in their flight suits, are remarkably similar. Both leaders are extremely secretive and rely on inner circles to guide them. Both demand total loyalty and can be brutal to those who cross them. Both are also inclined to attack the news media, which they see as irritants at best.

You can read more and download the essay here

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